Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Australian consumer prices declined 0.3 percent in the most recent quarter after rising 1.2 percent in the previous quarter. It was the biggest drop in the index in 11 years. Leading Indicators in Australia fell 1.0 in November to 253.5. Toyota, Honda and Nissan slashed global production last month by 25 percent, 7.5 percent and 36 percent, respectively.

While longer term (i.e. at some point), I view the all the stimulus as inflationary, those trillions of dollars are no match for a global slowdown in the short-run.